KEEGAN RATINGS

Kansas 92, Iowa State 81

After suffering a seven-point home loss to Kansas two weeks ago, the Iowa State Cyclones walked away stewing over a 31-percent shooting performance that included an ugly mark of 4-of-25 from three-point range.

It stands to reason then, to think that the Cyclones entered Wednesday's rematch at Allen Fieldhouse believing that if they just could shoot better, they would have a good shot at winning.

Didn't happen. Iowa State did shoot better — 48 percent from the floor and 10-of-26 from three-point range. Much better, in fact. But so did Kansas, which shot 52 percent from the floor and fought off several Cyclone charges in the final 30 minutes to win, 92-81, and improve to 16-4 overall and 7-0 in Big 12 play.

“I think we did everything better tonight than we did at home,” said ISU's Georges Niang, who led the Cyclones with 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. “Tonight we were back to our old selves.”

KU coach Bill Self said the Iowa State that played the final 30 minutes on Wednesday was as good a team as the Jayhawks had played all year. That team battled back from a 30-14 deficit early to trail just 46-43 at halftime. It also trimmed KU's lead to a single point late in the game.

But a couple of timely Kansas runs — the one to open the game, another at the start of the second half and the knockout blow in the waning minutes — proved to be too many hills for Iowa State to climb.

“They came out on fire,” ISU coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I've been in this building enough as a player, a coach and a scout, and it happens. Pretty much every game.”

Because of that, Niang and ISU point guard DeAndre Kane (22 points) were quick to credit KU's performance.

“We got down early, but we battled back,” Niang said. “They made some tough shots to beat us, so kudos to them. They played a hell of a game, especially (Andrew) Wiggins.”

The KU freshman poured in a career-high 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting and was the focal point of a 6-0 spurt that turned a three-point game into a nine-point Kansas cushion with under three minutes to play. The play that sparked it was an intentional foul that gave Wiggins two free throws and Kansas the ball.

“It looked, to me, like Dustin (Hogue) was trying to prevent a layup,” Hoiberg said. “I didn't get to see a replay of it, but it was a big play.”

Added Niang: “That (intentional) call was a big call. I'm not saying it was a bad call at all. That's when they took off.”

The victory was the 19th in the past 21 games for Kansas against Iowa State. Perhaps more importantly, it was KU's seventh consecutive victory and further tightened the Jayhawks' choke hold on the Big 12 Conference race. Asked if he thought KU could run the table in conference play this season, Hoiberg wasted no time before answering.

“Sure. I think so,” he said. “If they're hitting shots like that, that's going to be a tough, tough team to beat.”

Comments

ANDREW WIGGINS!!!! That 44 second (3.27-2.49), 6 point stretch of domination with the game on the line was pure alpha-dog. He is the real deal and every bit worth the hype. Actually more than the hype because nobody said anything about his D. He was the only one that could guard Kane and wish Self had him on Kane the whole game. His only down spots were getting out hustled by Ejim on the put back rebound with about 8 minutes left and the outstanding feed to Ejim by Niang at 5:30. In only a few weeks, Wiggins has dramatically improved his J, especially his release. I get a thrill up my leg watching him perform.

ISU through their best game at us, only to lose by double digits. All the guys looked great with every starter scoring double digits. Embiid’s double-double with only 1 foul, which was not even a T. A dozen dimes for Tharpe. My man Ellis is getting his confidence back around the rim. I can’t wait to see the Hoop-Math.com stats. I bet we were in the 1.5 ppp range. We shot 51.6% for the game but felt like we could have gone for well over 60%.

The 14 TOs are a lot better, however, many of them were still of the unforced variety.

C’mon Hawks, keep up the great work but let’s tighten up the handle. On to Austin!

HCBS is never going to be too critical if our assists outnumber our turnovers. We had 20 assists on 32 baskets, 14 turnovers. Nadiir was very good again. While I realize some of our turnovers are unforced, we will get the majority of them from making the extra pass to get a better shot which is why our shooting percentage is over 50% in conference play and always at 50% or above during HCBS's time at KU. Very seldom do we take a forced shot not in the rhythm of the offense. Also as much as we stress pounding the ball inside, entry passes into limited space in the lane will lead to more turnovers, but also a higher percentage of of dunks and lay ups. Shooting 10 of 22 threes was encouraging also.

I hear what you are saying about the TOs vs A. However, some of the TOs are senseless, like when Seldon made the pass to Traylor and when past him and Tharpe OB, when Tharpe mishandled the outlet pass on the steal right in front of Self or when Tharpe had that no look behind the back bounch pass that headed to the backcourt leading to a steal and breakaway basket. Those are the mindless variety that drive me crazy and should not be tolerated.

I'm very much ok with the TO off drives that result in strips or forcing the action inside. I look at those as the price needed to pay inorder to get better.

I'm off the charts about our shooting. I was also very happy with our D last night. ISU played a great game. Self, in his post game remarks, even mentioned that he doubted we could have guarded them much better.

Since we will probably play ISU again this year the book is not closed on this toughrivalry.

“They came out on fire,” ISU coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I've been in this building enough as a player, a coach and a scout, and it happens. Pretty much every game.”

Thanks, Fred. Unfortunately, there have been a few blips over the years, but yeah, it's pretty much hammer time every time the Jayhawks take the floor at AFH. This years team has been SOOOO much fun to watch, I wish it would never end.

Suzi, I did qualify my comment by saying certainly some of the turnovers are unforced. Also it was Frank not Nadiir that threw the behind the back bounce pass to Traylor who was positioned behind Frank. Traylor made a valiant effort to corral the pass before it went back court, leading to an easy ISU run out. Both Frank and Nadiir should delete that pass from their repertoire. The behind the back pass can be the appropriate pass on the break where we have numbers, but not 25 to 30 feet from the hoop where it doesn't lead to a basket and we are merely just trying to get into our offense.

Did you notice all the easy buckets ISU got in the paint? Wiggs is our best lock-down defender and JoJo is the enforcer down low, but the rest of the team needs to start taking it personally! I know HCBS is focused on this as an area of improvement and I believe we will get better in this department. Isn't it interesting how scoring comes much more easily to young players than lock-down defense does? I guess that's what video games and SportsCenter Top 10 will do to a young person!

Nick, our guards (Tharpe, Mason and Seldon) can't defend against anything. I never held out much hope for Tharpe of Mason but did for Selden. Selden's defensive ability is on of the biggest disappointment to me from this team. Before the season started he had made comments along the lines that he wanted to be a "lock down defender." He's got a lonnnnng way to go. Oddly, Frankamp is probably our best defensive guard. Also, Ellis hasn't exactly been out there locking anything down.

Do you think they can get better though by tourney-time? I'm really hoping so. I was at the OSU game and Selden actually did a decent job against Smart. I think there's a glimmer of hope for him. But Naa has been getting beat off the dribble all year and Perry seems half a step slow on the defensive end. How is it that he's half a step quick on the offensive end? I agree with your comment about Frankamp and I think Mari's got some juice too. Black has had a couple highlight blocked shots which has been nice to see.